Shadowlands in 2021

[styil]

With the mass lockdowns, global recession, inevitable staff layoffs, smaller teams, potential staff infections and the inability to work from the office, I would say that this now puts 2022 as a possible timeline for release.

[Yuli]

With the mass lockdowns, global recession, inevitable staff layoffs, smaller teams, potential staff infections and the inability to work from the office, I would say that this now puts 2022 as a possible timeline for release.

Maybe I'll seem a little bit optimistic now, but I don't think Corona will put the world on lockdown for two years.
2021? Maybe.
2022? Highly doubt it.

[Th3Scourge]

For this to happen not enough time with Corona has passed. They need at least another 4+ weeks for this to be a plausible reason.

Why is it not a plausible reason? Why set an arbitrary milestone of 4+ weeks? I think you underestimate the significant setback to businesses and industry due to quarantines and disruptions to normal working conditions.

SL being delayed is all but inevitable now, and is totally acceptable, even if everyone went back to normal work conditions today. They may still get it out by December 31st 2020, but I would say that's less likely than likely.

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Fabricated? Check their quarterly results. BfA was a flop, even bigger than WoD when it comes to sub numbers. Huge initial sales, steep decline quickly after release. I don't want to reopen this discussion yet again so... let's keep it about Shadowlands. I think everyone agrees that they cannot risk a rushed release for Shadowlands after BfA and that's pretty much the topic.

And I agree with your second statement. Corona absolutely affects workflow and development of Shadowlands, negatively.

BfA has been one of the most profitable expansions. Sub numbers aren't their primary metric anymore

[DemonDays]

With the mass lockdowns, global recession, inevitable staff layoffs, smaller teams, potential staff infections and the inability to work from the office, I would say that this now puts 2022 as a possible timeline for release.

Global depression more like it.

Do people on these forums not realize what's happening in the world?

[FlemmMinis]

With the mass lockdowns, global recession, inevitable staff layoffs, smaller teams, potential staff infections and the inability to work from the office, I would say that this now puts 2022 as a possible timeline for release.

Quick open three threads about this!

[kamuimac]

Global depression more like it.

Do people on these forums not realize what's happening in the world?

most people dont realise.

dont blame them - most of them dont have access to internal financial data or dont have any info from management meeting.

they treat it as extra 2-4 weeks vacation instead being sh..t scared if they will even have work to come back to

imagine what would have happen if for example people knew that company X have already a ready list of 40% staff who can be fired imidiately on lets say march 30 after another meeting and decisions ?

i know it will sound abysmal but only way to save economy atm is to spend money like never before. else we will hit recession levels worse then in 1929.

paradoxaly IT will be most liekly hit the least - but what is happening now will without a shread of doubt speed up automatization tremendously . the only companies that will come out of this untouched will be the ones which already are mostly automatized and operate with minimum personel engaged.

gameing industry should boom too - both PC and console one if people will spend more time in lockdown.

[huth]

i know it will sound abysmal but only way to save economy atm is to spend money like never before. else we will hit recession levels worse then in 1929.

Certainly isn't helped by the fact that the situation makes it hard for most people(and companies) to spend much.

Not seeing your paradox, though. IT not getting affected as much is pretty much expected.

[Revamp Man]

i will remind people 1 more time that during blizzcon intervies devs stated they plan shadowlands for late 2020 or early 2021

the fact that we have almost april now and not even alpha is out confirms 2021 release

The devs never said 2021

[munkeyinorbit]

SL will for sure be delayed until 2021 with the corona stuff going on, and good riddance, maybe they'll actually have enough time to make it any decent.

No. That is what blizzard will claim but people who have actually read the thread know that there were rumours from months ago that blizzard was behind schedule. There were even wow experts saying that development looked to be behind where BFA was at a similar timeframe.

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The devs never said 2021

Devs don't decide when a game releases. They're fucking developers.

[tmamass]

Fabricated? Check their quarterly results. BfA was a flop, even bigger than WoD when it comes to sub numbers.

As I said dont fabricate stuff to fit your narrative. Subs dont decide if a game is a flop and bfa was NOT a flop - that you hate it doesnt make it a flop!

i know it will sound abysmal but only way to save economy atm is to spend money like never before.

If you throw away your money NOW you are doing it wrong...

[Scottyjscizzle]

Who knows with modern Blizzard. Clearly they had very little to show, but at least it could explain why this exapc is so horribly lacking in new systems / core features.

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Fake leak? Quite a few commentators are suggesting that although the pre-order says a December 2020 release, that seems unlikely since they had so little to show. Sure, they might be wrong, but to call it a "fake leak" is a bit silly....

Man, quite a few commentators? That makes it totally legit

[FreeHongKong]

As I said dont fabricate stuff to fit your narrative. Subs dont decide if a game is a flop and bfa was NOT a flop - that you hate it doesnt make it a flop!

If you throw away your money NOW you are doing it wrong...

I just have this feeling you have no idea what your talking about.

[Nyel]

As I said dont fabricate stuff to fit your narrative. Subs dont decide if a game is a flop and bfa was NOT a flop - that you hate it doesnt make it a flop!

Blizzard's worst quarterly results in several years (2016, 2017 and 2018 were all a lot better financially) in Q1, Q2 and Q3 2019 don't make BfA a flop? What else then? It has nothing to do that I hate BfA (I indeed do), it just has been a major failure, especially when you compare it to Legion's (financial) numbers. Here, for you:

Q3/16: 42M MAU, $727M revenue / $321M income / 44% margin
Q4/16: 41M MAU, $669M revenue / $273M income / 41% margin

Q1/17: 41M MAU, $441M revenue / $166M income / 38% margin
Q2/17: 46M MAU, $566M revenue / $225M income / 40% margin
Q3/17: 42M MAU, $531M revenue / $168M income / 32% margin
Q4/17: 37M MAU, $599M revenue / $160M income / 27% margin

Q1/18: 38M MAU, $480M revenue / $122M income / 25% margin
Q2/18: 37M MAU, $489M revenue / $133M income / 27% margin
Q3/18: 37M MAU, $635M revenue / $189M income / 30% margin
Q4/18: 35M MAU, $686M revenue / $241M income / 35% margin

Q1/19: 32M MAU, $344M revenue / $55M income / 16% margin
Q2/19: 32M MAU, $384M revenue / $75M income / 20% margin
Q3/19: 33M MAU, $394M revenue / $74M income / 19% margin
Q4/19: 32M MAU, $595M revenue / $260M income / 44% margin

Even when we factor in that Overwatch contributed a lot to Blizzard's numbers (in 2016 and 2017), 2019 was an exceptionally bad year for them. No imagine if Classic hadn't been a thing in Q3 and Q4, the numbers would be even worse in comparison.

[huth]

No. That is what blizzard will claim but people who have actually read the thread know that there were rumours from months ago that blizzard was behind schedule. There were even wow experts saying that development looked to be behind where BFA was at a similar timeframe.

I don't think you understand the bolded word. And there were no experts, only self-proclaimed "experts". Nothing in that actually supports the conclusion that development was or currently is behind schedule.

[rhorle]

Devs don't decide when a game releases. They're fucking developers.

Someone is angry. Blizzard has never hinted at 2021. Won't accept that either? ActivisionBlizzard has never hinted at 2021. The only ones to ever hint at a 2021 release were content creators who need to drum up views and spread the idea through out their fan base in order to keep propagating themselves as important sources of information.

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Even when we factor in that Overwatch contributed a lot to Blizzard's numbers (in 2016 and 2017), 2019 was an exceptionally bad year for them. No imagine if Classic hadn't been a thing in Q3 and Q4, the numbers would be even worse in comparison.

That doesn't mean an expansion is a flop. It just means subscribers/MAU are in decline. You also can't use Blizzard wide numbers to speak about one specific game.

[Nyel]

That doesn't mean an expansion is a flop. It just means subscribers/MAU are in decline. You also can't use Blizzard wide numbers to speak about one specific game.

You can compare on a quarter to quarter basis during the lifetime of different expansions. Fact is, in the second half of the 2010s Blizzard never performed worse than during BfA's lifetime (2019).

[rhorle]

You can compare on a quarter to quarter basis during the lifetime of different expansions. Fact is, in the second half of the 2010s Blizzard never performed worse than during BfA's lifetime (2019).

If you compare different parts of a declining curve to each other then of course they will never perform better then the higher point of the decline. It still doesn't prove that it is a flop anymore then Mists of Pandaria was a flop compared to TBC. Or WotLK compared to Vanilla/TBC. Because that is the argument you are making. That being lower on the curve then something else automatically makes it a flop.

World of Warcraft subscriptions have been declining for years. Keeping to that decline is not a flop it is simply normal. There was not a huge drop with BfA which would be an indication of a flop. And there was not a huge increase because of BfA to indicate it was a huge hit.

[Revamp Man]

No. That is what blizzard will claim but people who have actually read the thread know that there were rumours from months ago that blizzard was behind schedule. There were even wow experts saying that development looked to be behind where BFA was at a similar timeframe.

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Devs don't decide when a game releases. They're fucking developers.

Then who at blizzard said 2021???

[Onikaroshi]

lol, no. not happening.

Very good chance of happening. Doesn't cost but pennies to develop but will have a huge surge of profit for a couple of months before settling like Classic

And Classic is far from dead too.

[Zexaniro]

I've been saying this for so long, only to be shutdown by the naysayers on this site. Unfortunately logic and Wow pundits are on my side. A Q2 2021 release date at the earliest is what should be expected